Name: Koshari (Rice, Lentils & Pasta)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Egyptian
Ingredients: 1 cup Rice; 1 cup Brown lentils; 1 cup Macaroni; 1 cup Chickpeas; 0.5 cup Vermicelli; Oil & salt; 400 g Tomatoes; 3 cloves Minced garlic; 2 tbsp Vinegar; 1 tsp Cumin; 0.5 tsp Chili flakes; 3 cloves Minced garlic; 3 tbsp Vinegar; 2 tbsp Water; 2 Onions; Oil

Ingredients

4servings

Rice, beans & pasta
Rice1 cup
Brown lentils1 cup
Macaroni · or short pasta1 cup
Chickpeas · cooked/canned1 cup
Vermicelli · optional0.5 cup
Oil & salt
Tomato sauce
Tomatoes · canned or sauce400 g
Minced garlic3 cloves
Vinegar2 tbsp
Cumin1 tsp
Chili flakes0.5 tsp
Garlic-vinegar sauce (daqa)
Minced garlic3 cloves
Vinegar3 tbsp
Water2 tbsp
Fried onions
Onions · thinly sliced2
Oil · for frying

Steps

Thinly slice the onions and fry in oil until deep golden and crisp, then drain and lightly salt.
⏲ 15 min
Boil the lentils until tender (about 20 minutes); keep the cooking water.
⏲ 20 min
Toast the vermicelli in a little oil, add the rice, and cook it in the lentil water for a lentil rice.
⏲ 20 min
Boil the macaroni and drain.
⏲ 10 min
Tomato sauce: fry the garlic, add the tomatoes, cumin, chili, and vinegar, and reduce until thick. Mix the garlic-vinegar sauce.
⏲ 10 min
Layer lentil rice, then macaroni, lentils, and chickpeas in a bowl and spoon over the tomato sauce.
⏲ 2 min
Pile on the fried onions and serve with the garlic-vinegar sauce.

Variations

Spicy (shatta): Add more hot chili sauce.
Quick version: Cook the rice, pasta, and lentils separately and use canned chickpeas.
Gluten-free: Skip the pasta and use rice, lentils, and chickpeas.
Extra onions: Double the fried onions — they're the heart of koshari.

Tips

Crispy fried onions are koshari's signature — fry them deep golden for aroma.
Cook the rice in the lentil water for deeper color and flavor.
Keep the tomato sauce tangy with plenty of vinegar.
Spoon on all the sauces right before eating and mix it all together.

More detail and the reasons why (3)

Nothing in the pot is seasoned; the dish is seasoned at the table. The tomato sauce, the garlic-vinegar daqqa and the shatta all go on right before eating, which means the rice, the pasta and the lentils only have to be cooked plainly and correctly. The dish is finished in the bowl rather than on the stove. Waakye names the logic while pointing here — "if rice under spaghetti seems strange, look at Egyptian koshari — rice, pasta and lentils on one plate by exactly the same logic." Umm Ali supplies the other half: both are everyday Egyptian food "built the same way — leftovers layered up into one dish."
So the three starches are cooked apart, and exactly one thing crosses between them. Cooking rice records it: koshari "cooks its rice in the water its lentils were boiled in, which costs nothing at all." Not throwing the water away is the whole of it, and colour and flavour travel with it. Nothing else is shared, because the three want different amounts of water and different times — put them in one pot and two of them are guaranteed to get the wrong one.
The fried onions are the only component that is neither a starch nor a sauce, which is why they go on top and go on last. Biryani uses the same birista and calls it "key to the sweetness and aroma". Deep golden is a browning endpoint rather than a colour preference, and the oil the onions leave behind carries that aroma through the bowl. They are also the one crisp thing in a dish of soft ones, so the variation that doubles them is asking for more contrast rather than more onion.

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

More of the same kind

Main course →

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